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Worldwide Shortage of Barium
New submitter redhat_redneck writes "The U.S. and Canada has been experiencing a shortage of barium sulfate, which is used as contrast for upper and lower GI studies. It has reached the point where doctors are being asked not to order these exams except in emergencies, and some exams are being cancelled. Here's the letter that's been put out by the manufacturer. The longer this drags on, the more serious this issue becomes, eventually impacting patients and healthcare providers in both cost and quality of care. Some sources point to a dramatic drop in Chinese production. In their defense, it seems China is changing safety regulations. Medical use only make a fraction of the uses of barium sulfate, but it's going to be disproportionately affected by this shortage. We can't go back to our old contrast Thorotrast; it causes cancer. Does anyone know of alternatives to barium?"
As long as the waffle reserve is safe...
which is used as contrast for upper and lower GI studies
What the hell are these studies and why is it assumed Slashdot readers would know what they are? What's a "contrast" in this context?
Is the submitter seriously asking us to suggest alternatives to barium? Worst submission ever. It could have explained what this bullshit means, and why China needed to improve safety?
1. Use Thorotrast.
2. People get cancer and die.
3. Then you Barium...
i'm right here.
-barry uhm
The icky-factor aside, Barium is an element does not vanish and can certainly be sterilized to any degree desired. So, why do they apparently not recycle the stuff?
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
http://www.aaawholesalecompany.com/450105-cs.html
about a $100 a bottle.
Gastrografin and Ultravist. No reason to defer these examinations.
What about recycling? I mean even if it degrades to something else because of radioactivity, there's no reason not to revert that process and use solar energy to do it.
Is there any other place to get Barium besides China? These chinese fcukers are starting to realise how much the West depends on their cheap products and are throwing their weight around a lot in recent times
Other countries will ramp up production. It will just take time.
Apparently due to increased safety regulations being adhered to in Chinese mines. Damned commies! they'll have unions next!
I think the medical profession is wasteful if they are not reusing barium on-site!
When penicillin was very new and little of it was available during and immediately after WW2, the urine of penicillin-treated patients was collected and distilled, so the penicillin could be saved and re-used several times over.
I don't see a problem with doing the same by purifying barium from patients' stool, expect the disgusting aspect. However, medical professionals must have a tolerance for disgust, else they would be not able to do their work.
The last time (Last Month, 19th) I got my B12 Injection I was told there is a Nationwide shortage of B12 used for Injections also. It was confirmed when I tried to refill my prescription at some local Pharmacy's. Thankfully I still have some left in my Vial, but those of you that don't and need this, you can be prescribed a Pill that will do the job, though not as good, until production picks up if it hasn't already.
Does anyone know of alternatives to barium?
Um, how about calcium sulfate or strontium sulfate? All are alkaline earth metals, and have the same or similar basic chemical properties because of having the same valence, electron configuration and so on. Right?
GI stands for Gastro-Intestinal, as in the eponymous tract. You are not as much of a smartass as you think you are.
Barium Sulfate is also HUGELY important in oil well drilling mud.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drilling_fluid#Composition_of_drilling_mud
China putting a crimp on drilling mud could have some interesting effects, I'm sure. What makes little sense is the complaining about a shortage in hospitals, where a dose is less then an ounce, when oil drillers are pumping the stuff into the ground by the ton...daily...all over the world. Unless of course somebody wants us to get excited about China stepping on the hose without us finding out where the real shortage is.
I wonder who that might be. I also wonder who submitted this story.
Most of the things China is holding-back are "rare Earth elements" which, contrary to the name are not all that rare. The US has abundant supplies of many of them (like the Neodymium used in brushless motor magnets) but the US has killed-off nearly all domestic production for political/environmental reasons. The Obama administration, for example, keeps pushing solar panels and electric cars, yet at the same time has made it nearly impossible to obtain any of the raw materials for either thing within the US. This gives people a false "green" impression .... but what it really does is shift the pollution to a place where it will be less controlled and mitigated (out of sight, out of mind.....)
Anybody in the US who opposes getting these materials in the US should, by law, be deprived of the benefits of them.
It is known to cause pregnancy though ...
In the abstract, this may sound great, but I doubt many average people will want to drink the "recovered" barium....
It's also not just the "ick" factor: The stuff is often passed-through very sick people. In re-processing it you would need to absolutely guarantee you had eliminated any and all biological "stuff" right down to the cellular level ..... without error. ANY quality control problems == huge lawsuits. We used to re-use syringes and needles in medical facilities, but no more ..... you only do such things when it's so hard and expensive to make new stuff and the lawsuit penalties for error are so low that the risks are "acceptable"; that's just not modern America.
Yeah, when did they start caring about the workers?
... or possibly bazium.
sudo ergo sum
Doesn't anyone recycle this crap?
Barium is also rumoured to be a major component of chemtrails...
Maybe they should stop putting it in the chemtrails then...
Does anyone know of alternatives to barium?
I hope you're not considering taking any answers you get from Slashdot seriously. Let's leave this one to medical science.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
The price of barium metal at the moment is $150/kg or so - in small quantities.
Some of the 'unavailable' compounds mentioned above had a weight of around 340g, or 150g of barium, about $20.
Sure, you need processing - which pretty much amounts to dumping it in a tub, along with sulphuric acid.
Does the manufacturer of the barium compound have a problem sourcing product in a way that will result in a medically approved product without further applications to the FDA - perhaps.
But it's not shortage of barium.
I don't know where this article is coming from, but worldwide baryte production is in the order of couple million tons. A day's production is enough to give one billion people the procedure. It is not strategically important at all. I can buy it by truckload at about 200$/ton.
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the War Room!
Gastrografin is already being used as a viable alternative to barium in radiological studies as contrast for imaging the Gastro-Intestinal (GI) tract, especially in patients where bowel perforation may be imminent (barium spills into the abdominal cavity as a result, causing barium peritonitis; while rare, it is an incredibly deadly complication), in conditions such as intestinal obstruction, for example. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatrizoic_acid Given that I am but a medical student, this is fairly well known in the medical world. Which makes this an odd question to ask...
Was being brief and assumed the implications were obvious...... guess not
1. Just because a few geeks are certain re-use is ok and might be willing to do it, the general public would not be
2. Even if you are a geek, there's no guarantee some minimum-wage flunky at a re-processing company (or some unionized hospital worker who is mad and in the middle of some "labor action") is gonna do a perfect job and the stuff YOU end up drinking will be properly re-processed. A bit like drinking re-cycled urine .... fine if you are a geek and the processing is being done by the rocket scientists at NASA for the space station, but are you still willing if it's being done by the guy who's only other career option included saying "want fries with that?"
3. A good lawyer will easily convince a typical jury (possibly with members who are anti-science lefties who reject nuclear stuff) that there was some bad thing in the re-processing process (probably done by evil "big hospital" or "big pharma") i.e. it's just another level of "doubt" ....
Think some more and you can imagine many other reasons that each just make the business case a little bit harder to close. No single cut might kill the patient (in this case: re-use of Barium), but lots of little cuts and he bleeds-out
No because the left hand is being sat on by the government, and the right hand was stolen by the oligopolies.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Ooo, Ooo, I know! How about creating a litigation free environment in which doctors aren't afraid to make a diagnosis without rushing to a multitude of tests such as these?
I'll say, if they don't get their GI exam, they may very well end up impacted.
...but if you want to know where its being used in large quantities.... Do a google search on Barium and chemtrails.
No Shit! And for those who do not believe chemtrails exist.... even mainstream news has covered the matter.
There is no shortage. The problem is the price is increasing. But most likely the reimbursement rate by Medicare hasn't gone up to keep pace so they can't fill the orders for the price Medicare is covering. Most of this GI stuff is for seniors anyway. This is most likely a political move to get people scared so they can get the lobbyists to jack up the reimbursement rate.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
We'll get all the Barry-ums we need.
FTFA, "National", and from the summary, USA & Canada. What about the 6 billion other people you forgot?
Barium not an option?
Then Crematum.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
The price of the ingestible cameras just needs to become cheaper than the barium and some automated processing of the 'footage' needs to become available. Radiologist consults are likely more expensive than either costs to make.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I've got some Barium for you. I keep it safe; just like Christopher Walken and a watch.
Now what are we going to do with all the bad chemistry jokes?
....but I decided to Barium.
Good, have you ever taken this stuff? It's like drinking chalk and tears the fucking hell out of my intestinal tract for weeks afterwards. Mostly for useless tests because doctors are too lazy or stupid to do actual work.
Damned if we do, damned if we don't-- but you aren't wholly accurate
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/12/11618/dont-ask-dont-tell-concerned-citizen-uncovers-whole-foods-policy-selling-food-gro
"Does anyone know of alternatives to barium?" Lead
Where are all the funny comments about barium sweeps and Vulcan neck pinches? Most of them are talking about recycling?!? /. is nearly dead. It had a good run.
I had this done about ten years ago. It was disgusting though. Tastes so bad. But they mixed in Crystal Light so it wouldn't taste as bad. My issue was that I ingested too much and they couldn't get a good view. It was awesome though because they had this live-feed video camera xray dealio. So I could see the stuff go down my throat at the moment I ingested it. Then they gave me ice cream and you could clearly see it go into my stomach. Neat stuff.
No barium, bury 'em.
Some settling may occur during posting.
It will be interesting to see what happens then the global supply of helium runs out in a few years, apparently we have about 25 to 35 years left.
:)
Its not just used for your kids birthday balloons (in fact that gas is likely second-hand / reused gas in the first place) it used to cool MRI machines.
Time to buy a couple of tankers and invest in a long term profit
"Does anyone know of alternatives to barium?"
foorium should be worth a closer look.
There are good alternatives to barium (such as gold), but you can't use them until the FDA approves them.
My first reading was "barlum"... what?
I squinted over my still full first cuppa and then read "barfum." Huh? Is that like stickum I thought?
Then I expand the article summary and see "barium sulfate" in the first sentence... the brain kicked in to cruising gear about then.
I can see the fnords!
The lesser industrial grades are not suitable for pharmaceutical use because of impurities. The material used in drilling mud is comparatively low purity (4.1/4.2 sg vs ~4.45 sg of pure BaSO4) and typically quite dark in coloration. The mine source dictates the impurities present, and this dictates where it can be used. There is dark/low gravity material used for drilling, dark high gravity material used in low end industrial fillers, beige high gravity material for mid-level industrial fillers, white high gravity materials for high end industrial fillers, then ultra white/ultra pure material used for pharma applications. The impurities make all the difference.
I guess that means "No enema for you!" :-)
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Oh shit ... it out... and recycle it, duh.
Is about the least toxic of the heavy metals (High Z atoms stop X rays best for contrast). Surely some compound of Bi would work instead. Heck, pepto-bismol might work. But it's tough to get the medical community to change anything. Look at the issues with Tc-99. Lots of other stuff would work fine, there is a shortage (Chalk river shut down), but no one will even consider anything else because that's what the sinecure chemists in hospitals know how to do, and don't want to earn their pay learning something else. And yes, I know my nukes.
Why guess when you can know? Measure!
If there is a worldwide shortage, it's the perfect opportunity for someone to open a damn factory and make money. Knowing that the supply is coming from China makes me gravely concerned about having anything put in my body that might contain Barium, I wouldn't trust the quality of a Chinese block of wood, let alone something involving medicine.
Since Barium is useful in the early detection of various serious and potentially fatal afflictions, the answer to the OP is obvious.
In the absence of Barium, Bury'em!
Barium shortage.hmmm, not surprising since Barium is one of the components used in the toxic mix known as chem-trails. Yes, on a daily basis around the globe, just look up in the sky and one will see the linear cloud trail forming behind high altitude aircraft which lingers for a very long period. Other toxic components in the chem-trail mix include aluminum, cadmium and chromium just to name a few. This is part of a covert military/government operation known in simplistic terms as geo-engineering or geo-forming, but the real reasons to drop toxins into our atmosphere are insidious to say the least.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_chemtrails14.htm
Eldric V
Watch your language!
Surely can't be that expensive to make one, given that most of the components are on virtually every mobile phone on the planet.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
That's what my doctor does when his patients die.
Have gnu, will travel.
I don't know if there is a difference between the Barium Sulfate used in medical imaging and that used to drill oil wells, but I know that one of the largest mines in the world for that mineral was near Cartersville, (no relation to a former president) Georgia. At least that was true back in the late 1960's when I took some geology courses at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Is this another case of the US having closed mines in favor of imports from China? I seem to remember reading that this may have been partially responsible for the "shortages" of rare earth elements.
Oh, wait...
With the production of Barite at 8,000,000 metric tons per year (http://www.indexmundi.com/en/commodities/minerals/barite/barite_t7.html) the real shortage is caused by the fixed price medicare pays for a procedure involving a barium swallow.
I can remember the gastroenterologist pointing out my appendectomy scar, but I slept through most of it.
Lest you think that might be preferable to swallowing the stuff, they gave me some sort of buffered primer to drink prior to the enema, and 35 years later its preturnaturally hideous taste still haunts me.
Baryte, or barite, (BaSO4) is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate. Baryte itself is generally white or colorless, and is the main source of barium.
The major baryte producers (in thousand tonnes, data for 2010) are as follows: China (3,600), India (1,000), United States (670), Morocco (460), Iran (250), Turkey (150) and Kazakhstan (100). In just the USA, It is mined in Arkansas, Connecticut, Virginia, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Nevada & Missouri. [Source]
Now that you know where it comes from and where it is found in the USA, why aren't those mines increasing their production? Has everyone become so lazy that it makes sense to import everything?
Agrisea Tsunami - Epyc Servers... https://agrisea.net/products
Why doesn't someone in the U.S. just make medical grade barium-sulfate? Sounds like a hugely profitable oportunity for a good ol' capitalist.
Barium is not in short supply, although medical grade barium sulphate may be. I guess the mined baryte is never used in medical procedures, regardless of its purity when it came from the ground. Making pure barium sulphate from baryte is straightforward though. Coke, dissolve in sulfuric acid, precipitate. Rinse and repeat if higher purity is desired. Of course this adds a certain cost (precipitated barium sulphate was around 700 $/ton last I checked, in 2007) but that is peanuts for medical applications. One is using a couple hundred grams for the contrast procedure.
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the War Room!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatrizoic_acid
The use of barium for radiological studies is such a small fraction of the whole barium sulfate market. This shortage is a complete fabrication!
Doesn't the LFTR reactor create barium as a by product?
I'd actually think Lyons Electronic Office, the worlds first commercial computer, developed from the Cambridge EDSAC, and which went active in 1951. LEO series computers remained active until 1981.
Perhaps you shouldn't be so parochial? :-)
The problem seems to be a fragile single sourced supply chain, both by the doctors and the manufacturer.
Iodine is used in the illegal manufacture of Methamphetamine. As a resule, Iodine has recently been reclassified as a List I chemical under federal law. Those handling or selling iodine and its compounds must now go through a bunch of bureaucratic red tape with the DEA.
I found this out right after the Fukushima disaster (when I tried to find some potassium iodide supplement {or other potable iodine compound, such as water purification tablets or tincture of iodine} to take to bump my iodine level before the fallout arrived). Guess what: None to be found. Not just because it had been sold out by those who responded faster. But because most retailers (including large drug store chains and sporting goods stores) had stopped carrying it, rather than deal with the drug warriors.
I suspect that, even if some iodine compound is suitable for a gastrointestinal contrast medium, the drug industry has not been interested in developing it and seeking approval, at least until now. While barium was in cheap supply why should they spend money developing a replacement whose distribution would involve expensive federal red tape?
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
What makes little sense is the complaining about a shortage in hospitals, where a dose is less then an ounce, when oil drillers are pumping the stuff into the ground by the ton...daily...all over the world.
As was pointed out elsewhere in this article: The ores used for drilling mud (notably those from US sources) contain far too much hard-to-remove toxic impurities (notably barium-strontium-sulfate) for medical use. Also, chemical processes to refine out the toxic impurities create FAR MORE TOXIC compounds in the intermediate steps, which must in turn be very carefully and completely removed. (And one supplier went belly-up, and earned long prison terms for an exec and a chemist, after killing several patients by attempting to substitute poorly "purified" cheaper ore.)
While the good stuff from the Chinese ore was cheap and plentiful there's been no reason to try to substitute anything else.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
No more unhappy meals.
clearly refining it is possible, after all we can refine individual isotopes in large quantities when we want to.
but it is not necessary. it is true that the oil drilling grade is far lower than high purity medical barium but even if it was 10% it would be far more economical to use it over this recycling option.
i really cannot understand how supply is not taking care of this? that is if china was the only supplier, and china is selling directly low grade to oil companies, but world wide medical supplies now have to come from mines that only get, at a guess, 1 million tonnes a year in other parts of the world?
if china is producing the bulk, which is currently around 8million tonnes a year then the oil companies must be using alot, more than i expected. either that or is really is being used for chemtrails...
it interesting the imagine what actually seeding the atmosphere with barium would do ....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barium#Occurrence_and_production
i wonder how much of the
Being slightly more serious, the only other simple heavy metal salt which is sufficiently low solubility to be credible would probably be lead sulphate. But even that is probably too toxic, too cumulative and too likely to get mobilised into the metabolism. Caesium salts would probably be pretty biologically benign, but they're almost all significantly soluble in stomach conditions. And a touch on the expensive side. I don't recall mercury having any salts as insoluble and as refractory as barytes, and otherwise it's got as bad a biochemistry as lead.
No good options on the sixth row of the periodic table then. Next row up, you're losing significant degree of contrast on the X-rays - scattering is strongly coupled to nuclear mass. (Oh, horrors ; I'm trying to remember how the photoelectric factor "PEF" modifies the interpretation of oil exploration of neutron-porosity and density logs. But yeah, atomic mass is pretty much the biggest component to the correction calculations.) And the obvious candidate to look at here is strontium sulphate. Most of the chemical behaviours of barytes, biologically relatively benign (do not confuse with the effects of the strontium-90 isotope!), should certainly provide significant contrast in X-rays. And I can't see anything that would come close in desirability on row five. So I'd say that your best substitute may well be strontium sulphate.
Mind you ... some of the tungstate-VI compounts might be worth a look too. But they're liable to chemical erosion followed by acute metal poisoning in the real world, so I'd be very chary of them. Pass me another guinea pig, this one is squeaking loudly and writhing in a good impersonation of agony.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
What about trying to reutilize or recycle barium? If you can't get enough nor find a good alternative. For example, in clinical test, can't they save their patients urine for later quenching? For funding, research and peer finding please refer to the non-profit Aging Portfolio.
How about educating people to eat more healthily, and investing in healthy food, so that there will be less GI problems?
-alex-